Messing With The RIAA’s Head

US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner granted yesterday a request by the companies that she order Joel Tenenbaum to destroy the 30 songs that a federal jury found he downloaded and to not commit further copyright infringement. But she rebuffed their request to bar him from encouraging others to break the law.

“The word promote is far too vague to withstand scrutiny under the First Amendment,’’ Gertner wrote. “Although plaintiffs are entitled to statutory damages, they have no right to silence defendant’s criticism of the statutory regime under which he is obligated to pay those damages.’’